Far from home -- but not Chicago treats

Wednesday

Jul 25, 2007 at 12:01 AMJul 25, 2007 at 5:52 AM

Thanks to online services like TheBestofChicago.com and TastesofChicago.com and many Windy City restaurants, transplanted Chicagoans can feed their deep-dish pizza or Vienna Beef craving with a little shipping.

By David L. Matthews

Breakout comparing delivery companies at bottom of story.

For people like John Rodell of Poughkeepsie, N.Y., it seems you can take the man out of Chicago, but you can’t take Chicago out of the man.

It’s been more than 40 years since his days on the corner of 31st and Keeler, growing up down the street from the original Home Run Inn, but he says he feels right at home since he’s had his favorite pizzas shipped to him in upstate New York.

Thanks to online services like TheBestofChicago.com and TastesofChicago.com and many Windy City restaurants, transplanted Chicagoans can feed their deep-dish pizza or Vienna Beef craving.

TastesofChicago.com, run by Lou Malnati’s Pizzas, began shipping 20 years ago as a one-time deal for Christmas, according to Sally Glunz, director of mail order. But sales took off, and now the restaurant not only ships pizzas full time, but also delivers items from Vienna Beef, Wildfire, Eli’s Cheesecake and Portillo’s, among others, anywhere in the United States.

“We look for Chicago’s best; we choose only the best of Chicago,” Glunz said.

Lou Malnati’s main competitor, TheBestofChicago.com, originally shipped Fluky’s hot dogs nationwide but now also delivers Home Run Inn, Bishop’s Chili and Eli’s Cheesecakes.

Shipping started when these services place ordered items inside a “cooler box” filled with dry-ice that keeps perishable foods frozen for 48 hours. The dishes are delivered via courier services like UPS or FedEx.

Although prices can be hefty for customers like Rodell, it’s worth it if he can get a taste of home, a taste now acquired by his sons, who have never lived near Chicago.

According to Dan Hull, director of marketing for Giordano’s, which ships their pizzas nationwide, this universal love of Chicago food comes from the relative down-home atmosphere of Midwestern Chicago.

“Being in Chicago, we’re at the agricultural heart of America,” he said. “We have a lot of mom and pop restaurants around here.”

Buona marketing director John Gill, whose company also ships its dishes, agrees that there’s something special about the food of Chicago. He said this past Super Bowl was a busy time for deliveries because customers “could make their friends jealous of Chicago food.”

The biggest destinations for these packages are Florida, Arizona and California, where retired Chicagoans call home, or as care packages for homesick college students. But even at that distance, TheBestofChicago.com’s office manager Angela Eiland said that the only thing missing from their reheated products are “the Chicago scenery.”

Rodell, who orders four Home Run Inn pizzas each month, agrees.

“I mean, I used to watch (employees at Home Run Inn) put the pizza together,” he said, with an accent thick enough to make Elwood J. Blues proud. “But (the delivery) is close.”

WE DELIVER

Two big online services deliver a variety of Chicago foods, but how do they compare? Take a look: